Tag Archives: Aper

This image gallery brings together 200 great pieces of Montreal graffiti from 2018. It is not necessarily the best of the year because taste is a subjective thing and I was obviously not able to photograph everything. The selection was done partly from my own personal favourites but mostly from those of my followers on Instagram. Of course this list was put together from what I was actually able to photograph, so keep in mind that it may lack some great work that just slipped between the cracks.

The pieces are shown here in alphabetical order of artist/crew name. To ensure that the list wasn’t filled with only work from a few popular writers, I have set a maximum of 3 pieces per artist. Collaborations by two or more artists under one common theme count as one entry.

I never single out a piece in my yearly retrospectives, but this huge tribute to Scaner deserves a special mention. As far as I know, nothing of this scale has been done ever before. The piece is the creation of Scaner’s KG crewmates Zek (who wrote the letter outlines) and Stare, it features characters by Harry Bones and Axe Lalime, and is filled with pieces by nearly 100 local and international artists. A special post is dedicated solely to this historical creation, check it out here. Zek, Stare and Axe all have solo pieces in this list, scroll down to see them. Zek and Axe are also featured in the Retrospective of 2018 murals and other painted street art.

A great off-Mural collaboration of Fleo (top letters), Frank Bo (left character), Snikr (right character) and Chizo (ground letters). The Awe piece bottom right was salvaged from last year. Scroll down for more Frank Bo, Snikr and Chizo below under ‘Rekal’. Fleo, Snikr and Rekal also contributed to the K6A wall featured below under ‘K6A’. Snikr and Rekal also collaborated on a mural featured in the Retrospective of 2018 murals and other painted street art.

Fokus on letters and Axe on characters, ahead of the 2018 edition of Under Pressure

Fokus (letters) and Axe Lalime (basketballers) on a wall piece announcing the 2018 edition of the Under Pressure Festival. Scroll up for a solo letters piece by Axe (under his name) and his collaboration on the huge Scan You Rock tribute wall at the top of this list, and down to the K6A wall for Under Pressure.

Tribute to Scaner by Fonki and Smak (and perhaps others?) under J.Shantz wall for the 2018 edition of Mural

Above 2 photos: Rekal (green letters), Frank Bo (character) and Chizo (turquoise letters) in a Plateau production curated by Snikr. Scroll up for more by Chizo and Frank Bo under ‘Fleo’. Rekal also contributed to a K6A wall featured above.

For about a week during the month of September 2018, nearly 100 writers and artists converged onto Cabot street in the South West of Montreal for the creation of a huge mural celebrating the graffiti writer and artist Scaner who had passed away a year earlier following a 8-year battle with cancer.

The 675 m2 (7250 sq. foot) mural is the creation of Scaner’s KG crewmates Zek (who wrote the letter outlines) and Stare, and features characters by Harry Bones and Axe Lalime. It was done on one of the two walls which had served as the canvas for the Scan You Rock mega-production 16 months earlier, a huge tribute to Scaner put together by his friends when they found out that he only had a short time left to live. Scaner’s own piece in the latter production was salvaged and has been integrated into the new mural which was designed around it. Barcelona artist and 4S crewmate Harry Bones created a Scaner-inspired character looming over the piece, and nearly a hundred of Scaner’s fellow writers and artists from Montreal and around the world filled the letters of his name with their own name pieces. Scan’s DA crewmate Axe Lalime created the end character, a clock reminding us that Time Is Gold.

The creation of the mural was organised by Scaner’s wife Karine ‘Kay’ Rogers and his friend Philémon (through the non-profit organization Mr CanDo) and made possible through the generous contribution of donors who thus helped pay for the rental of aerial work platforms, scaffoldings and safety equipment as well as the purchase of paint and the transportation of artists.

A tribute of this scale was unheard of in the world of graffiti and urban art before this. It is a testament to the love and respect that Scaner commanded from his peers, in Montreal and elsewhere in the world. The new mural is seen everyday by thousands of commuters on the Turcot Interchange, and photos and videos of it and its making have made it around the world through social media, cementing Scan’s place in local and international art and graffiti history.

The gallery below features photos of the complete wall as well as close-ups on various sections, including credits for all the artists involved. A few names are missing, any input is welcome.

The complete wall. Scroll down for close-ups on the wall’s different sections. Click to view image in bigger size.

The Scan You Rock tribute wall to Scaner; detail showing Harry Bones and Scaner’s original piece

Close-up on Harry Bones‘ contribution around Scaner‘s own piece salvaged from the Scan You Rock production from April 2017 (a few months before he passed away). Harry Bones was Scan’s crewmate in the 4S crew.

The “Jailspot” is the name given by graffiti writers and urban explorers to two contiguous abandoned buildings on Henri-Bourassa at the level of the now closed Tanguay prison. These buildings were not actually part of the closed prison, they belonged to Transport Québec who once used them as hangars for heavy machinery. They appear to have been used in the recent past as offices and warehouse space. The westernmost of the two is older than the other one which seems to have been built around 2006-2007. For the following years the latter new construction was used for sporadic warehouse sales.

Business must not have been very good, the buildings were left unused as early as 2011-2012 and signs of graffiti action started appearing, first outside then inside. Within a few years the two buildings were completely taken over by explorers and writers/artists. Everything except the warehouse at the front of the easternmost building quickly deteriorated, through the combined actions of vandals and rain/snow through broken doors and windows as well as collapsed roofs. The two buildings were finally gradually demolished over the spring and summer of 2016 to make space for the construction of controversial residential/commercial towers.

If you have any additional information about this spot, feel free to write in and contribute to this article.

The gallery below is divided by rooms and other areas where artists left their mark. The names of the rooms are not official ones, I just came up with them for comprehensive purposes. A plan of the spot can be seen below, at the top of the gallery.